A pair of GLIAC conference championships highlighted the Grand Valley State University men’s and women’s 2011-12 indoor track and field season, while the women also claimed their second-straight NCAA indoor national championship.

The defense of those titles begins on Friday when GVSU hosts the Laker Early Bird at the Kelly Family Sports Center.

“We are very optimistic about coming off of last year and keeping the ball rolling,” said GVSU head men’s and women’s coach Jerry Baltes. “Of course we just finished the great cross-country season. We feel great about where our track side of things is at and excited to get them going.”

That great cross-country season Baltes mentioned featured the GVSU women capturing a national championship and the men earning a seventh-place finish at the national meet. It also allowed the distance crew to maintain a workout regimen that would keep them in tip-top shape for the beginning of the indoor track and field season.

However, it wasn’t just the runners getting prepared throughout the fall, but the entirety of student-athletes across the track and field spectrums with the Lakers’ fall conditioning program.

“It’s the first few weeks of the semester where we are just coming together and training together eight hours a week,” Baltes said. “Between conditioning and lifting and all the team building stuff, we look to build a base to get going once we start full-time practice.”

For many of the track and field athletes, the first meet is a chance to gauge where they are in their training and what they need to improve on.

“It’s pretty much a benchmark to go out and try to do your best,” said redshirt sophomore Trent Chappell, who had a indoor season personal-best mark of 2.11 meters in the high jump last year. “You want to get a good mark in before break because that’s tough when you have to go into Christmas, and it is hard to stay on your training schedule over the break.”

The Laker Early Bird will be the first of seven meets at home for the Lakers during the 2012-13 indoor season. Along with the GVSU Holiday Open on Dec. 14, it is one of only two chances the Lakers have to compete before 2013 rolls around.

Especially with the string of conference and national championships the men and women have been able to piece together, the long-term goals for each squad obviously remain high. But at the start of this new season, it is all about finding the right parts to complete the whole and eventually push toward another championship.

“Well, of course, we want to win more championships, but we lost a significant amount of points to the seniors,” said senior thrower Sam Lockhart, who was an All-American in the shot put and weight throw last indoor season. “Getting the freshmen in the swing of things, seeing who is going to be able to contribute points and trying to fit people where they are most beneficial to the team is what we are trying to do so far.”
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